


NEON - A Separated Siblings AU

by TheOvidians



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Retelling of the series, Separated Siblings, first-person perspective
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:49:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 18,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23265718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOvidians/pseuds/TheOvidians
Summary: Inspired by an AU created by Shanzepoo on twitter, this fic tells the story of the four mutant turtles but with one big difference: Leo had been separated from his brothers early on. As he grew up under Draxum, Leo is more ruthless, slightly more competent but very much morally questionable then you might remember him. You might also notice some his usual characteristics nonetheless. Most events will seem familiar to you but they will be shaped by Leo’s very personal account of them and they will tell the story of how he tries to understand the worlds above and under and rise to his position somewhere in-between.
Comments: 47
Kudos: 281





	1. A Seal Is Lifted

No matter if it’s day or night, sunny or cloudy, the hidden city is the most colourful place I know. Well, to be honest, for most of my life, it was the only place I ever knew. I grew up here, in this bright neon place that I knew like the back of my hand. So obviously I REALLY wanted to leave it and explore the city above. New York. What a town. Full of this weird and monotone species in their weird and monotone concrete blocks that had no idea what was going on under their feet.  
So you can understand how excited I was when Draxum told me I have to recover something for him ‘upstairs’.  
“Come back with the agent as soon as possible,” he roared.  
I was just standing there, trying to look serious even though in my head, I already made a bucket list of the things a definitely had to try out before I returned ‘ASAP’. Thanks to my trusty portal sword I could jump from one place to the other in no time at all, at least theoretically. Draxum had manipulated the sword before giving it to me and until this day I could only reach places that were within the realms of the yokai world. But now, now things would be different, he would finally lift the ban.  
I handed him the sword. It’s blue handle had been wrapped in a paper seal with ancient markings. You don’t believe a piece of paper can be this powerful? Trust me, I tried everything to remove it without my father noticing it but nothing worked. Putting it in a sink and washing it for hours? Nope. Trying to burn it? Nope. Throwing it in a pit of sulphur where the stone gargoyles always chill? Nope. And the gargoyles even complained that I shouldn’t throw my trash in the middle of their bathrooms.  
Draxum made it look easy, he poured one of his elixirs over the handle and just like that took the seal off.  
“Under my guidance you have mastered this mystic weapon. You will use your strength and knowledge to annihilate your enemies and aid my endeavors,” he said solemnly.  
“Our current situation demands me to move forward in your training earlier than expected. I trust you that you use the full potential of your sword only in my interests. After all, that is what I prepared you for all these years, Leonardo.”  
Despite my excitement, I felt the gravity of Draxum’s words and their implications. I nodded and received my weapon back. He had just removed a piece of paper, but the sword felt sharper and heavier than before. I examined the shining blade and the face of a turtle covered in a long blue shawl and blue and black battle gear looked back at me.  
I just knew that this moment set something in motion, something big. I just wasn’t sure if this grand event would be me trying a taco or going to a human public toilet for the first time or something entirely else.  
Either way, I was sure was ready for it.  
“I won’t disappoint you, pops.” I said and at the time Draxum started replying “Don’t call me pops,” I had already zapped through a portal into the heart of New York City.


	2. A Cloak, Mask and An Iron Rod Meet in New York City

The job Draxum appointed to me wasn’t as easy peasy as squeezing some lemons. (also squeezing lemons is not really an easy task) I was expected to hunt down an agent of the council. What? You never heard of the literal stone-faced yokai who always argued with my dad? Never mind then. All you need to know is that they had their usual disagreements that ended with the warrior scientist dramatically storming out of the room. The council must have been more worried than usual because they sent out a small but powerful yokai who possessed similar powers to those of my mystic sword. The agent could zap around places as quick as lightning, which made him a real headache to track down. The agent managed to sneak into Draxum’s lab and retrieve a sample of his current project, but we noticed him before he could portal back to his superiors. We assume he is now trying to cover his trail before going to the council so we won’t have anything to proof that he ever infiltrated Draxum’s lab.  
I started my search on one of the biggest roofs in the city center, it was probably in the middle of the night (time in the hidden city was measured differently) since the streets weren’t completely clustered with humans as I had expected it from the human movies I saw. The sounds were difficult to process though; cars, music, animals and humans all seemed to try and make as much noise as possible. The markets of the hidden city can be loud but this was on a completely new level of annoyance. Honestly, I had believed I could just jump right into the wild city life and have a chance to do everything I always only read or heard about. Seeing the tiny moving dots quickly passing by and the concrete streets stretching out as far as I could see, I didn’t feel excited by endless possibilities, I simply felt lost. It would do me no good to just go down there and try to ask my way around, I knew that much. While crouching on the edge of the roof and staring into the lights on the ground, I decided to focus on my mission first and figure out the rest later.  
I wrapped myself in a cloak (hey, Draxum had enemies everywhere so you couldn’t be too careful) and put on one of those masks that were popular during the festivals in my home turf. It was a very simple mask with only three lines, two for the eyes and one that suggested a mouth. Then I put out my sword and held it horizontally in both hands. If I concentrated hard enough I could sense if something or someone was nearby that had a similar energy pattern. Only problem was, I sucked at concentrating for longer than two heartbeats. I tried my best to drown out the constant sounds and lights and focus on the electric energy surging out from my blade and into me. It was difficult to describe what I was actually looking for. Maybe you could best describe it as a flicker of energy that zoomed by in my head. Some time went by and nothing happened. I felt stupid for just standing there and hoping for a lucky find. So I figured I would try the same but from several building tops in different directions.  
The sky already began to change colour when I finally felt something. At this point I lost track of the number of rooftops I had occupied, it had been too many that’s all you need to know. In my mind a yellow lightning bolt popped up, it was faint but tangible. Most importantly, I was sure I could portal into the area where it came from.   
I landed in some random, mostly empty streets and I couldn’t immediately find the agent. I looked around carefully, avoiding any humans, who seemed in the dawn like formless shadows. I got the sense that the few figures that came near me weren’t interested in anything but to quickly pass by.   
I glanced in every corner and side street and felt that I lost a lot of time being careful not to suddenly run into the agent and lose my moment of surprise. Plus, my cloak was heavy and the mask a double restriction, which made sneaking around tedious. Usually, I’m quite proud of my sneaking skills. The times I gave Hugin and Muninn heart attacks when they needed to keep an eye and I vanished for hours. Fun times.  
Just when my focus on the energy signal wavered I heard some rumbling in one of the side streets. I moved closer, keeping my sword ready but hidden under the cloak.   
The signal definitely got stronger again, but there were also voices? I could distinguish a female voice and several male ones. Were they yokai or human? Worst case scenario would be that the council send more of its agents after this one and they had already found him.   
I reached the end of the narrow street and it opened up to a large area. I had seen enough human documentaries to know that I was looking at a construction side. Humans loved to repeatedly destroy and build up there houses, I know it doesn’t make any sense to me either.   
The energy surge got more distinct.  
I scanned the area and noticed a group of people standing near what was meant to be a house some day. If humans found the yokai and mistook him for a pet it wouldn’t be too hard to just grab him. I moved forward, the group had their backs to me.   
The closer I got the more uncertain I was if these guys were actually human. One seemed really tall and I’m pretty sure humans didn’t come in green. I stopped and for a second didn’t know what to do. One of them finally sensed my presence and looked up. I’m pretty sure she was human and that it was the female voice I had heard earlier.   
“Hey, who are you?!” the human girl asked in a high-pitched tone.  
She swung around and I could see the yokai agent cuddled up in her arms. How dare him to look so comfortable. The other three figures also reacted and as they turned towards me I could confirm that they were definitely NOT human.   
They also didn’t look like any type of yokai that I was familiar with. Their skins had varying types of green and their size also differed greatly. They wore some basic battle gear and weird headbands in distinct colours. The bulky one with the red headband stepped protectively in front of the others.   
Meanwhile, I still tried to make sense of them.  
Maybe they were kappa? Nah, if so they would have ponds on top of their heads.   
“My friend asked you something. Who are you? Do you belong to this little guy?” The biggest one tried to sound tough but his voice clearly wavered.   
I again ignored the question. The more I looked at the three yokai the more...familiar they seemed. They clearly resembled turtles and their anatomy was more human than most yokai. But that was impossible. There shouldn’t be someone who was, well, who was like me.   
“He is creeping me out guys,” the smallest one with the yellow headband said.   
The agent in the human girl’s arms got more restless, just like I sensed his energy structure he could sense mine and he clearly wanted to zap out of here. I had to make my move, pronto.   
“Give me the yokai and nobody gets hurt.”   
To underline my words I pulled the hand that held my sword out of the cloak and pointed it towards the agent.  
“What are you going to do with Mayhem?” The human didn’t seem frightened, I have to give her credit for that.   
“Nothing that concerns you,” I returned. That obviously hadn’t been the answer she was hoping for.  
Then I noticed something else.  
“Wait, you named him Mayhem? He isn’t a human pet you know.”   
The agent purred in protest, as if he was saying that he actually liked the name and the attention.   
“Listen, if you defend this yokai you will be enemies to Draxum. You probably heard of him, haven’t you?” I tried to persuade them with one of my most effective tactics: threats. It seemed to have zero effect.  
They just looked confused.   
“Draxum? What is a Draxum?” the one with the red headband asked.  
“You never heard of pops...I mean, the warrior scientist, greatest one there is in the hidden city?” I made a mental node to be more careful with calling Draxum ‘pops’ out in the open.  
“Those are a lot of words that doesn’t make any sense but that part about the scientist is interesting,” the one with the purple headband said, his voice was more calm than the others and had a slightly arrogant tone. I noticed that some of his gear was made of metal. I had heard a lot about human technology though staying awake during Draxum’s lectures about the actual details had always been impossible for me. I felt I had to particularly observe this one. He might hide some surprises under the metal shell. The red one seemed to pack a punch, too.   
Mayhem (fine I will also call him that) got even more nervous. I decided to make the first move now and charged towards the group. They clearly didn’t expect an attack even though they all had some impressive weapons with them. First, I went against the smallest. His reflexes weren’t bad, he dodged my sword and got out his two nunchucks. I recognised them from Draxum’s personal weapons chamber, he sorta had a thing for martial arts, just don’t point that out to him.   
“I got this,” the yellow one told the others with confidence.   
He began to swing his weapons, these could be troublesome. I went into a defensive pose and waited for his attack. It never came. The only one he seriously hurt with his nunchuck swinging was himself. I snorted.   
“I never had an enemy who would do the job for me. Thank you, excellent work,” I mocked him. I wanted to continue with some great puns but the red one charged me from the left while ahead the purple one seemed to prepare some trick of his own.  
I am sure the big and bulky yokai was tough and if he got hold of me could easily crush my bones, but it was clear he didn’t know how to use his own strength. He had sais with him that also didn’t seem to fit him really.   
“Woah there,” I called out as I moved out of his way. “Aren’t those sticks for barbecue?”   
That made him even more careless and it was easy to sidestep his next charge at me as well. Not only that, he couldn’t stop in time and ran into a nearby truck.   
“Wow you guys are really efficient in this self-pummeling thing, you know?”   
I had a run now, the jokes and bruises basically created themselves. What about purple one? What appeared to be a simple staff had turned into a giant two-sided hammer. As I expected, this one had some tricks up his sleeves.   
“Witness the genius of a true scientist,” he cried and activated the thrusters on both sides of the hammer. They began to spin in an insane speed. He threw this monstrosity at me and, I’m not gonna lie, if it had reached me I’m not sure if I could have reacted in time.   
Alas, the purple one seemed to have miscalculated the rotation of his own ‘brilliant’ invention. They flew up in the air without coming near me at all. His weapon was quickly out of energy and crashed into the ground.   
This was too much, I began to laugh hysterically.  
“Oh man, that is too much. You guys are hilarious.”   
After a few more moments in which I tried to recollect myself, saying “okay, okay” before having another laughing fit, it dawned to me just in time for me to see it coming and still to be too late to dodge it.   
During all this time, I had lost sight of the human girl and my prior target. I had assumed she wouldn’t dare to move. When I looked around now, I couldn’t see her.  
“Where is…” I began but before I could finish the question something hit my head from the right. Something made out of metal and very, very hard. I heard a violent ‘crack’ and I’m glad that it wasn’t my skull. The girl had managed what all the others couldn’t, she had landed a hit on me and with nothing but a iron rod that she must have picked up from the construction side. The agent stood on top of her left shoulder.   
I stumbled to the left, pain filling up all my senses. Luckily she had hit my mask and not my face so only my right cheek was throbbing intensely. I touched my mask, a good part of its right side was gone and the other part was splintered. If I left it in this state, I risked getting the loose pieces in my eyes and mouth so had to remove the mask completely.  
“Muy bien, very good,” I said and I meant it this time, “using the yokai’s power to sneak up on me was very clever.”   
I don’t think she appreciated my words. Her face turned from resolution to shock. The strange yokai who were still recovering from their attacks looked frozen in their movements. They were just as surprised to see a face so similar to theirs as I had been just a few minutes ago. I tried my best to appear like this was not a big deal for me. I pulled back the hood of my cloak.   
“This must a total mind blow for you. Another yokai who looks like me but is way more handsome? WHAAAT?”   
As they continued to stare at me, mouths open and brains obviously not processing what they saw, I carefully moved a few steps closer so I stood between the human girl and the three turtle yokai.   
“But believe me there is a totally logical explanation to this.” I said calmly. Then I pointed my sword upwards and created a portal underneath us that drew us in before any of them could realise that in fact I would not give them any explanation.   
Obviously I didn’t had one, but that was about to change soon, I would make sure of it.


	3. Is This The Answer You’re Looking For?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone who already left a kudos or bookmarked this fanfic. They make me incredibly happy and I hope you will continue enjoying this story!

My portal spat me out into a dark corridor, while my involuntary travel companions landed in a small distance to my right. Between us were prison bars made out of the sturdiest organic material Draxum had every created. I heard a lot of grunting noises and some decent curses that assured me of two things. First, all of them had survived their first portalling (that wasn’t always self-evident) and second, that they also had recovered from our ‘fight’ quite well.  
I reached into the darkness where I assumed a wall and the light switch.  
Found it!  
Suddenly the area appeared in a bright artificial light.  
“Welcome to our very own prison floor,” I announced. “I hope you will enjoy your stay.”  
Of course, I didn’t tell my new inmates that they were the only ones in the whole area. (They would figure this out when they would eventually try to scream for help) We had a newer complex nearby my dad’s lab and most of the yokai we had kept here had already been used up in one of his experiments anyway.  
That fact that I brought them here was no coincidence, I wanted to have a private chat with them after all. Plus, it gave me time to decide on my next moves without these yokai possible running away into some back-alley streets never to be heard of again.  
“Woah, what was that? Where are we?” the girl asked.  
“Was it magic?” the yellow one said with a strange excited glimmer in his eyes.  
“Or some kind of alien technology?” the purple one hypothesized. He had moved his goggles over his eyes and I assumed he tried to analyze the prison cell. Good luck with that, I thought.  
“Hold on a sec, where is my staff?” he added and looked frantically around.  
“Your weapons are safe with me,” I said and pointed at them lying nearby and definitely out of reach.  
“You promised us some explanations,” the red one reminded me while purple dramatically screamed ‘not my precious staaaaff’ behind him.  
“Yeah, about that,” I leaned on my sword, I felt exhausted from all the contradictory and nonsensical thoughts that rushed through my head. I kept them at bay for now. (Maybe also I got hit with a iron bar just recently but let’s quickly forget about my less epic moments)  
“I don’t really have any.”  
“I knew it,” the red one shouted triumphantly in return.  
“Though I am serious when I say that I intend to find some. And you are going to help me with that.”  
With these words I sat down and after a moment of hesitation everyone on the other side of the bars did the same. We all knew this might take a while.  
“Here is how it goes. I’ll ask the questions and you’ll give me answers. Then I’ll decide if I’m in the mood to turn you into test subjects, kill you or set you free.”  
“What thrilling options,” purple one remarked.  
The girl pinched his arm.  
“Owww!” he cried reproachfully.  
“Would you stop it with the sarcasm for one second,” she scolded him in a sharp tone. Clearly the human was the most level headed one of the bunch.  
“Ignoring that,” I said and moved on.  
“I know that some yokai prefer to spend their time in the human world but where do you originally come from? You must come from a district of the hidden city? Or maybe one of its branches in another country?”  
I asked and couldn’t completely suppress a pleading, hopeful tone.  
“Again, no idea, what you’re talking about,” the red one said.  
“We’re New York natives, a’ight?” the yellow one offered.  
“We know no other place than the beautiful concrete jungle,” the purple one paraphrased.  
“But isn’t it dangerous for yokai to just wander about in one of the largest cities of the upper world?”  
I thought of how overwhelmed I had felt just last evening as I had looked down on these streets that had made no sense to me.  
“Well, most of the time we live in the sewers,” the red one explained.  
Immediately the other three glowered at him and screamed ‘Damn it, Raph!’ in almost perfect unison. So the big one was called Raph, that is at least some kind of new information.  
“You can’t just tell the evil twin where we live?!” purple one said and pointed at me several times.  
“But I didn’t tell him where exactly our home is,” Raph tried to defend himself.  
“Woah,” I cut in, “evil twin? We are nothing alike,” I protested.  
They didn’t hear me. They were still focused on disagreeing amongst themselves.  
“How about you draw a map for every psychopath we meet so they can follow us right into our lair?!“ purple one continued.  
“I get it, Donnie,” Raph returned, “I shouldn’t have said that, you don’t always have to rub it in like that.”  
“Great, now I already have two of your names,” I said nonchalantly and that finally got their attention back. I enjoyed the expression on their faces, the realisation that while they had tried to prevent one mistake, they had just made another.  
I pointed at the yellow one, who seemed strangely calm and airheaded even as he sat on the floor of a damp prison.  
“And you are?”  
“I’m Mikey,” he offered without hesitation, “I like the red tattoos around your eyes.”  
While the others now turned to the smallest, shouting ‘Damn it, Mikey’ in harmony (each time they got better at screaming in unison), I had the urge to laugh again. I sometimes enjoyed laughing at the demise of an enemy, especially when I had developed a personalised method for their torture. But this was different, it came from somewhere inside me that, until now, I didn’t even know it had existed.  
“Those are no tattoos,” I corrected, “it’s just how my species looks.”  
“But,” I took my sword and pointed it into the prison, making sure they understood that I could easily hurt them even with the bars between us, “let’s try this again. I ask, you answer, oyes?”  
“Hey, where is Mayhem?” the girl asked before I could say another word. My amusement faltered, soon I would seriously have no patience left.  
I sighed, created a small portal and pulled out a head sized ball that contained the yokai agent.  
“This is a special containment so he can’t zap away,” I explained and hoped the human would be satisfied. On the contrary...  
“Let the poor thing free,” the girl screamed and I was impressed by her strong authoritative voice, she must be used to order the three yokai around.  
“Can’t do,” I said and pointed at the vial around his neck, “he has something that belongs to us, I told you that already.”  
The girl shot me glances filled with pure hatred, I figured I had to continue my interrogation under her silent ‘attacks’.  
“Anyway,” I dropped the ball carelessly, “what do you mean, you live in the sewers? Is this some special hideout for yokai?”  
“Why do you keep calling us yokai?” Raph asked but could read in my expression that it wouldn’t be wise to simply counter a question with another question.  
“The sewers are where our home is and we always believed we were the only ones who were like us, well, except for pops.”  
“You have a dad?” Now this was interesting.  
“He is rat and he likes infomercials.” Donnie said with a tone that added ‘I know how ridiculous this sounds’.  
This information was difficult to process. I had hoped that they had been part of a yokai community, maybe not native to this part, but just some weird travelers who by coincidence were similar to me. It can happen, right?  
Though, when I think about it, this doesn’t seem likely or, in fact, makes any kind of sense…  
“This is hard to believe,” I said and for once nobody protested. I didn’t even consider that they might lie to me. Except for the purple one they seemed too honest for that, plus you can’t make that stuff up.  
“You never even heard of yokai before?” I made sure, “You live in these...sewers, in the human world and you have been never somewhere else?”  
“Well,” Raph seemed to think about what he could add to that but soon gave up, “yeah,” he simply said.  
The thoughts I had tried to keep at a distance by hoping for another kind of explanation now came rushing in.  
Anomalies, it spouted out.  
No yokai of any traditional kind.  
Existing completely isolated from any kind of community.  
Exceptions.  
Strangely similar to human anatomy.  
Unclear origin.  
Artificial.  
Upper world turtle species.  
Experimentation.  
Years ago I was…  
“Hey, what’s up with you?” Raph asked.  
I looked up, I hadn’t realised that I had gotten lost in my thoughts and my past. I shivered and it wasn’t because this area has always been cold and damp on purpose. I was glad I still wore my coat, otherwise the others would have noticed it as well.  
“I…” I couldn’t keep my cool, couldn’t explain.  
I was upset and strangely numb.  
I looked up at their faces and something of myself looked back at me.  
I felt exposed and I hated that feeling more than anything in this realm or in any other.  
“You shouldn’t exist,” I said in a hollow voice. To whom? I don’t really know either.  
“I need some food,” I decided and stood up. These were surely not the words they had expected or myself, for that matter. It was just the first thing that came to my mind in order to get me out of here.  
“Stay put,” I said to them with the full awareness that they had no other choice anyway. I picked up the agent in his containment.  
“Hey, as a New Yorker, I have rights, you will be sorry,” the girl shouted.  
“Can you at least bring us some takeouts as well?” Mikey added but I was already with one step in my portal and my mind had rushed forward to some different places, to some different times.


	4. Always Take Some Advice From Your Local Rabbit

The good old bustling streets of the hidden city. After experiencing the upper world for the first time, I had gained a new appreciation for my home turf. The colourful flickering lights, excited and hushed voices where all kinds of trade happened or some stories shared, the smells from the open kitchens. I automatically made my way towards one of them. Stools were placed along a slim counter that directly opened to the street and steam that rose from giant pots covered most of the kitchen behind the counter. There was only one other guest and I sat down on a stool with some moderate distance to them.  
In this moment, the chef of the kitchen just returned from his storage with a fresh package of ingredients. He was a rabbit yokai but don’t let the pink nose and the beautiful white fur foul you. Underneath it you will find him cluttered with scars. He was especially proud of the one that drew a cut on the right side of his mouth, which turned every smile of his into a vicious grin. (Don’t ask him about it though, he will either mince you on the spot or will tell you stories about it for hours...both options I wouldn’t recommend) He was one of the sturdiest yokai I knew, one of the best fighters as well. He just happened to slice and dice some vegetables when he isn’t slicing and dicing up his enemies.  
He immediately noticed me. He set down his ingredients and leaned over the counter.  
“If this isn’t a familiar ragged face, how are you, Leo-san?” he asked in a chatty tone. Since he’s a yokai from the east, he would sometimes use words I couldn’t really understand, though you got easily used to it.  
“Rough night, Usagi,” I said and that surely wasn’t even half of the story.  
“I see,” he nodded. We had been sparring partners for years now, probably ever since he had shown up around these parts, so we understood each other without having to exchange many words. Come to think of it, everything I knew about wielding a blade I knew from him. (you didn’t expect that only Draxum had trained me, didn’t you? The scientist knew many things, but the ways of the sword wasn’t one of them)  
“So you are here to eat then? The usual?” he asked and already got a bowl.  
My stomach felt shriveled, I couldn’t imagine getting anything edible into it.  
“Not today,” I returned.  
Usagi observed me with his eyes that were as sharp as his weapons (and cooking knives).  
“You seem out of balance,” he said and began rummaging behind the counter. Shortly after he set down a ceramic cup in front of me.  
“What is that? You want to try out a new poison on me?” I asked half-jokingly.  
“If I would want to do that I would mix it in your soup. It’s much easier,” Usagi said dead serious. “This is herbal tea, it will calm you down,” he explained.  
“Why not just get out the good stuff? Some sake maybe?”  
Usagi shook his head in slight disappointment.  
“You are still no adult, at least,” a playful spark appeared in his eyes, “you don’t seem to act that way, yet.”  
“Yes yes, rub it in,” I said while sipping on the tea. (The taste wasn’t strong but the warmth flowed down my throat and my stomach didn’t feel as tense as before.)  
The truth was, Usagi and I had met when we were around the same age, but as we grew up it became more and more apparent that we aged differently. Recently, Usagi seemed a few moon circles older than me. I then learned that Usagi is what you could call an ‘authentic’ yokai, while I was ‘artificial’. A fake.  
“I told you that my origin is different from the rest,” I said after remaining silent for some time. Usagi meanwhile had begun to chop up some ingredients in preparations for his famous soup.  
“Yes,” he said without taking his eyes from his vegetables, “I told you that it doesn’t matter.”  
“I know,” I looked at the masses of yokai walking by the restaurant, “I thought so, too.”  
“But now,”  
I saw their faces before my eyes, the strange similarities despite them belonging to different species.  
“I think Draxum hasn’t told me the whole truth.”  
Usagi stopped his work and looked up, he probably traced something in my voice that was unusual for me.  
“What makes you think that?”  
“It could be possible that before his last lab exploded, Draxum succeeded in creating more yokai,” I said in a lowered voice. You could never be sure who was around.  
“More yokai? Like you?” he whispered back.  
I nodded.  
Usagi’s face was unreadable. He leaned back and returned to his work.  
I drank the tea, weighing my options to go back to the prison cell and try another round of interrogation. Or maybe I could use the yokai agent, who I had put into safe space with my portals, to my advantage.  
I had lost my sense of time and finished my second refill of tea when Usagi suddenly turned to me again.  
“Isn’t that a good thing?” he asked and the question surprised me. My brain had been lost in thoughts for a while and at first couldn’t grasp the meaning of his words.  
“If they have the same origin, then they are like you,” he added when seeing my puzzled expression, “then that’s a good thing.”  
“They’re nothing like me,” I snorted. “One is bulky and doesn’t know what to do with his own strength, the other seems like a scientist with too big of an ego and the third is an air-head who doesn’t stop to think for even a sec and...What is it?”  
I knew the look on his face all too well, he always had this slightest of an amused smile whenever I made a stupid mistake during practice.  
“I have never seen you talking about a yokai with such an interest,” Usagi said and his teasing tone really annoyed me.  
“Seems to me like you understand them very well already, there must be a connection after all, a fortunate encounter indeed,” he mused.  
“That’s a huge load of goblin poop,” I said and finished the tea in one gulp. I would never tell Usagi that, but of course I took his words serious. Even though, in this case, it was difficult to do so.  
A fortunate event? Knowing that your creator had lied to you for your whole life?  
I’m pretty sure Draxum didn’t just forget to mention that there had been four instead of one turtle that he had used in his mutation experiments like ‘Uuups, you’re right, I didn’t count them properly, you can easily mix up these numbers, huh. One or four, it doesn’t make a difference anyway, hahaha’.  
Yeah, that would never ever happen.  
“You know I’m right, just like always,” Usagi said and shrugged, “so listen closely when I give you this advice.” He pointed a spoon that he had just cleaned at me but it had the same effect as if he had used one of his swords.  
“Stop follow this mad scientist blindly. You need to think for yourself, see everything for yourself, judge things by yourself.”  
Then he pointed the spoon at my sword that I had casually leaned on the desk beside me.  
“This is a powerful sword, with it, you could go anywhere you want and yet it seems to me you can go nowhere. You just use it to run away.”  
I thought I was used to Usagi’s honesty, but those words hit a different string than usual. It was as if he had taken away my shell and had turned my entrails inside out.  
I needed to touch my shell to affirm myself that it was still there, still keeping me together.  
“You sure you don’t want to change your shop from kitchen to fortune telling?” I managed to say as a joke.  
Usagi didn’t say anything in return, he polished some bowls as if he polished some weapons. I fixed my eyes on his movements and my mind got lost in the past.  
I saw myself proudly presenting my first captive to Draxum, it had been a type of raccoon yokai known for their clever ways to fool an unlearned eye. He had been impressed and had presented me with a long blue shawl that I had worn ever since. I thought about my frequent training practices against Draxum’s roots that he could control by will, when I just started to be able to lift up a sword. I also thought about distant fragments of memories, they had always involved a trench and needles and hours of pain creeping through my whole body. Draxum’s ‘check-ups’, to ensure that my mutation had been stable.  
Then, all of the other emotions, confusion, anxiety, uneasiness made way for a strong surge of pure and polished anger.  
How much of what Draxum had told me over the years had been lies?  
The answers to this question were infinite.  
“That’s a good look on you,” Usagi said even though he was standing with his back to me, “You can pay the tea next time,” he said and waved.  
“Thanks,” I returned, grabbed my sword and made my way towards my creator.


	5. If I Say Run, You Say

I found Draxum in his lab. This was not surprising since he spent every waking hour tinkering on his projects. Seriously, this guy was the definition of a workaholic, I don’t think he even knows what the word ‘holiday’ means. (And I only know because Huginn and Muninn taught me about it when we were sure he wasn’t listening)  
“We need to talk,” I said. I had no patience for greetings.  
“Oh, you are back already?” he returned in a disinterested tone.  
“Did you…”  
Before he could finish the question I made a small portal, retrieved the mystic sphere that contained a desperate looking yokai and tossed it to him.  
“Excellent,” Draxum caught Mayhem and studied him. I’m pretty sure he wondered if he would better use the yokai for tests or for bribing the counsel.  
Usually, such a comment from him would have filled me with pride. I had been useful to him, I had proven my worth as his exceptional, successful experiment.  
I had been basically measuring the success of my work based on the quality of his approval.  
What had I been thinking?  
“As I already said,” I said and allowed some of my anger to be visible in my tone and face, “we need to talk.”  
Draxum continued ignoring me, he simply waved dismissively in my direction.  
“Not now, I need to concentrate on my latest mutation project. They are almost ready to be released in the human world.” During his last words, his voice had raised in excitement.  
I wanted to scream, to seize him and force him to confront me. I probably would have done exactly that if Huginn and Muninn wouldn’t have shown up just this moment.  
“Hey Boss! We have a problem,” they said and hurriedly flew past me.  
“Oh, hey Le-Man,” Muninn said to me before joining his companion. Both of them seemed out of breath and on their edge. To be fair, if you work for Draxum that was a pretty common state of life: always behind schedule, always in fear of the severe consequences.  
“What is it? Can’t you all see I’m busy,” he said and each word expressed more distinctively his wavering temper.  
“Yes, yes, of course, but I think you need to hear this,” Huginn assured in an apologetic voice and since Draxum said nothing in return he hectically began to explain.  
“We don’t know who exactly they are, but we think a group of yokai must have broken into the lair. We noticed some of the doors are wide open and in disorder as if someone had been searching them for something. The vault to the weapons chamber is also broken and some items are missing.”  
“What?!” I shouted.  
My surprise was authentic even though for everyone else it must have looked like as if I was shocked by the fact that someone supposedly ‘broke into’ the lair. That, of course, wasn’t true. I knew that these ‘intruders’ had been inside our research complex for some time, all because of me.  
But how did they manage to escape? And why were these idiots searching the place instead of escaping it as fast as possible?  
“Were you able to trace them down?” I asked and it didn’t matter if my tone was harsh. They must have thought I was angry at them since they hugged each other and Muninn answered in a pleading tone.  
“No, we have no idea where they are. Based on what they stole we just assume they must be more than one being. Please don’t portal us into the boiling isles again!”  
Draxum sighed in disapproval and walked to one of his experiments. It was a giant stone golem that he had crafted after reading some human literature that, he claimed, had inspired him to create life with stone and clay. I couldn’t make out what he was exactly doing but the next moment the statue came to life with a thunderous rumble. I was mildly curious what kind of literature had imagined that monstrosity, human imagination can be pretty wild.  
“For some extra protection,” he explained “I can’t afford to loose my experiments when I’m this close to completion, not again.”  
“About that,” I tried to force him into a talk even in the middle of the emerging chaos around us.  
“We will look around some more,” the two gargoyles offered. I guessed they just wanted to avoid one of Draxum’s tantrums and got nervous by the golem’s presence, who was ready to smash anything that came too close to him.  
“We need to find these intruders immediately,” Draxum barked.  
I was THIS close to begin shouting as well, though due to a very different reason, when a door on the upper floor burst open and three turtles plus a human girl stumbled right into the heart of the lab.  
I can never properly explain to you what I felt for the following heartbeats. Confusion was certainly very dominating, yet there was also still a strong flame that was fueled by hate, maybe there was also curiosity. What I didn’t expect was this intense surge of jealousy. It seemed like time was moving slower as I was looking back and forth the yokai and Draxum, both just for the timespan of whimper unsure of what they were actually seeing.  
While the group was more shocked than anything, I saw in Draxum’s eyes this glinter of scientific interest, of pure admiration. He had never regarded me with such an expression.  
“Who…?” he started, but was interrupted by Donnie who was the first to notice me and very subtly pointed at me while screaming ‘You!’.  
Beside me, Draxum mumbled: “It worked after all, they are magnificent.”  
I pointed back at Donnie and looked at my creator defiantly, though he was to my escalating frustration transfixed on the ‘intruders’, who stood some length away from us.  
“Explain,” I demanded, “you know them?”  
“I didn’t expect them to survive,” Draxum said and that was no answer. Why didn’t anybody seem to understand that when I ask a question I want an answer to my question and not some random nonsense? I really needed to polish my interrogation skills…  
“We came for our friend,” Raph declared and waved with a weapon each in both hands. Those weren’t the sais he had used before.  
“Wait, are those our mystic weapons?” I asked in disbelief. For once, the gargoyles had been right, they must have found the weapons chamber by accident and naturally they had taken the weapons that had glowed. (I can’t blame them, I mean, who wouldn’t had done the same?) Even the human girl had found a club that had been infused with a highly unstable substance.  
The girl raised the club against me as if she was asking ‘Want to get hit on the head again?’.  
“Where is Mayhem?” she asked and right after she had said those words she saw the yokai on the table behind Draxum.  
“It must be fate that brought you back to me,” he said. The yokai scientist didn’t care about the group’s battle ready stances. Suddenly, he looked at me and I could read nothing in his face than mild annoyance and a silent threat. Now, this was the same face that had looked at me ever since I can remember. I felt small and there was no room for defiance.  
“Capture them, but keep them alive. Those are your fellow test subjects after all,” he commanded.  
“We don’t know what is going on here, but our friends always comes first,” Mikey declared and playfully swung around the kusari-fundo. This mystic weapon was even more difficult to master than nunchucks (even if you ignore the fire yokai that possessed it) but he seemed to have a natural talent for it.  
I threw away my cloak (it would only hinder me now) and got ready for battle, though I wasn’t sure who I should attack. Why should I listen to him anymore? But what should I do instead? What would it mean to NOT do what Draxum said?  
I was frozen in my stance and just looked ahead as April charged forward with a battle cry.  
“Aaaaapril O’Neill,” she shouted and I thought, ‘well, at least I finally know her name, too’. She didn’t get far as Huginn and Muninn attacked from above and took her with them. She bravely thrashed around while shouting ‘Let me down’, followed by various insults.  
The others observed the whole spectacle worriedly.  
“I think we can leave this to April,” Raph said though it sounded more like a question than a statement and the three started running into our direction with their weapons up and ready.  
“What are you doing? Capture them already,” Draxum repeated as he realised that I had lowered my sword.  
Next, I did something I had never even considered before I had gone to the upper world. I asked:  
“Why should I do that?”  
My question visibly shocked him. Finally, I got him to meet my eyes and he must have realised what was going on. His lips strained in disgust, he clenched his hands to fists. Then Draxum turned away from me and ordered his golem to attack instead.  
The giant construction charged and the floor vibrated. Raph and Donnie had to quickly jump out of the way to avoid being stomped. Mikey had been quick enough to get past him before the golem had noticed him. He was directly coming at us and the sphere rotated in high speed. The next moment it came to life, which didn’t shock me. Mikey, on the other hand, lost his momentum while screaming ‘My weapon is on fire!’. The sphere should have stop on the spot, instead it whizzed forward like a cannonball that had been shot from an invisible weapon. Now it was Mikey who was hurled around by the sphere and he hold on to the chains for his dear life.  
Despite the fact that my trained eyes had been able to observe all this as they had unfolded in a short instance, I had still been too stiff and unprepared to get out of his way as the ball flew towards me and hit me right in my stomach. You think that was the worst of it? By far. The weapon was cackling, I assumed it was happy to be finally used in a battle, and it went completely crazy. Somehow the chains wrapped themselves around my waist and the sphere continued to fly around the lab with me and Mikey as it’s unwilling passengers. We zigzagged through the air, past the golem who had a hard time hitting its tiny targets as well as April who had managed to wrestle down Muninn and was now aiming at Huginn as he tried to keep them both afloat.  
“Look out,” Mikey tried to warn us as we were in a direct collusion with the wall. Too late. The kusari-fundo and most importantly, we along with the weapon, crashed into solid, unforgiving stone. For a while, I was only able to hear a terrible ringing in my ears and to see black dots before my eyes, the pain pulsated up my back and to my head. I could still hear the mischievous laughs of the fire yokai somewhere in the distance. I swore to myself, after this whole situation would be over, I would take that thing and portal it into the deepest trash pit of the hidden city.  
When my eyesight gradually returned, I could at least make out Mikey nearby who was holding his head and blinking disoriently. I wasn’t sure if his brain had took any permanent damage from the hit but I felt lucky enough to try asking him some pressing questions anyway.  
“How did you escape?” was the first one that came to my mind.  
Still rubbing his forehead, he waved into the direction of the stone golem whose attacks shook the whole lair.  
“Donnie installed some kind of remote control in his staff and you left it near the cell, so he could pilot it right to us,” he told me, his voice was slightly high-pitched from the pain. I was trying to locate Donnie in the other corner of the giant lab. I had failed to notice it before but contrary to the other two, he hadn’t taken a mystic weapon from our collection. He had still his staff, though after witnessing it’s potential, I could guess why he would prefer his it. Donnie had changed it’s form again. In this moment, it was a hammer that could release an impact strong enough to break one of the golem’s legs. Draxum meanwhile had summoned some of his roots that he was able to control with small hand gestures. Raph fought against them with his brute strength, ripping them out of the ground like he was the most aggressive gardener in the hidden city but they regrew too fast.  
“Hey, what is this strange yoyo? It’s awesome,” Mikey said excitedly and pointed at the kusari-fundo in his right hand. He must have picked it up again but the sphere was silent now. (maybe even the weapon was dizzy from that crash)  
“It’s trash,” I said and the sphere began to flicker dimly as if it had been offended by my words.  
“If you don’t want it, I’ll keep it,” Mikey said and observed the glowing ball.  
I intended to stand up when his words stopped me in my movement.  
“Wait a sec,” he said and looked me up and down. “I couldn’t see your shell before.”  
“So what,” I returned, unsure what to make off my opponent’s comment.  
I sat back down. I mean, it wasn’t like a huge fight was going on around us. I observed in the corner of my eyes, that April had managed to pummel Huginn as well as Muninn into submission and was now biting one of the roots that pushed Raph back. It had also become apparent that the golem’s sluggish movements would be its eventual downfall. Big chunks of its arms and legs were already missing, the rest would crumble down soon.  
“Shouldn’t you help them?” I asked Mikey but he was currently searching through his pouch that he wore around his shell.  
“Nah, I’m sure they have it under control,” he said. I was pretty sure nothing was under control but I didn’t say that to him. He stopped his search and asked:  
“Why is your shell so battered?”  
My right hand instinctively moved up my shell to the gap on the left upper side, then it felt over the many deep scratches that covered everything else.  
“Raph has a gap in his shell as well but it doesn’t look THAT nasty,” Mikey explained.  
“Gee, thanks,” I returned, “it’s a good thing a look hideous, I guess?”  
This whole conversation felt unreal and yet, it was like it had single-handedly managed to remove a splinter that had stuck in my mind and that had kept pressuring me to focus on Draxum.  
“No, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just...I have a deeper scratch too, here.” Mikey pointed at his shell where some kind of tape covered it. He was surprisingly observant since he saw in my expression that I had no idea what he meant.  
“My bros put a plaster on it and said that it would heal it. Humans use plasters on their wounds you know.”  
“I don’t get it,” I admitted.  
“Let me show you,” he said and took out a strip that looked like the one on his shell from his pouch.  
Before I could process his movements he came near me and pressed the weird tape over one of my deepest scars on my shell. I looked down on me, the tape looked awkwardly out of place. Maybe this is all a trick and it will explode any moment?  
“I have no idea what you just did,” I said blatantly.  
“The plaster will help, Mikey-guarantee,” he said as if everything has been explained now.  
A deafening sound got both of our attention.  
The stone golem had collapsed under Donnie’s repeated attacks. Raph and April were not so lucky. Even though Raph had also realised that his tonfas had some mystical juice in them, he could barely draw out their potential. Draxum had almost cornered them. Before I could think things through (which in retrospect, I should have), I got up and ran towards the desk in the middle of the room. Nobody paid me or Mikey, who was closely following me, any attention.  
I took Mayhem, who was still imprisoned in his bubble, and cut through the cage with my sword. It disappeared in a flash and the agent immediately zapped away from me and reappeared on top of Mikey’s head.  
“Take the agent,” I said, “he will be able to portal you back to New York.”  
“You are helping us?” Mikey’s voice and eyes were so cheerful, I questioned my own sanity. Why was I doing this exactly?  
I have no idea, my mind answered and I thought ‘yes, definitely going crazy’.  
A boulder landed nearby, another one almost crashed into the desk before us. The golem was falling apart all over the place.  
“Quick, take the others and get…” I said to Mayhem but he was gone before I could finish my sentence. “You ungrateful…” I cursed under my breath and watched as the agent portaled himself and Mikey near the others. Especially April seemed for a moment truly glad and hugged the yokai dearly.  
I ran to Draxum’s side before he could look around and realise what had happened.  
“The small one had escaped with the agent when I wasn’t looking,” I said and made my best effort to appear determined to continue my fight against them.  
“Boss, I think the golem is destroying your other experiments,” Huginn and Muninn shouted from behind and we turned in time to see another stone crashing into the giant glass veil that had contained all the prepared organic injectors with the mutation formula.  
You think up to this point every of Draxum’s experiments had been successful? That was far from the truth. The gargoyles and I could smell an explosion long before it would happen. It was a necessary skill in order to survive all the times something destabilised in his lab and he wouldn’t care if you could get behind a cover in time. So when I say something looked ripe to burst into flames and shreds any moment, you should run.  
Draxum should have known that as well, but he didn’t move. He was just standing there in disbelief, repeating the words ‘not again’ several times.  
“We need to go,” I said and searched the room for the yokai and the girl. Mayhem had zapped them out of here. I couldn’t say for sure if I was disappointed or glad.  
Draxum still showed no intention to leave his project behind.  
I was tempted to simply jump into a portal and leave him there. After everything today it seemed the right thing to do. As the control panel for the central glass container exploded in several violent bursts I couldn’t stand it any longer. I thrust my sword in the ground and a portal opened that transported me along with Draxum und Huginn and Muninn, who flew to his shoulders just in time, to a nearby hill in safe distance to the lair.  
The ear bursting bangs and the scorching heat disappeared in a heartbeat.  
“Oh man, that was close,” Huginn said in relief.  
“Too close,” Muninn agreed.  
This was Draxum’s cue to fully process what had happened and to determine that it all had been my fault.  
“I didn’t order you to portal us out,” he snapped at me.  
I shrugged, I couldn’t care less about his so-called ‘scientific loss’.  
“You would have rather died in there?” I asked and nodded into the distance where an ancient construction was engulfed in flames and slowly crashing down.  
“I could portal you back if you want,” I offered coldly.  
“Your sarcasm is uncalled for,” he returned and added, “and if you would have fought them like I said you should, this wouldn’t have happened.”  
I shrugged again. Exhaustion crept into my body, it was only now that I noticed how long I had been awake. It must be over two moon circles and without a proper meal as well.  
Draxum stared at the ruins, you could see a green cloud escaping from inside. Where those…  
“Ah, at least they survived,” Draxum said in a calmer tone as the cloud of countless wings rose higher and disappeared. I was sure this would turn into a problem later, but for now it didn’t concern me.  
“We need to rebuild again,” the mad scientist declared. “We cannot stop until we complete my goal.”  
The gargoyles sighed but didn’t protest, this wasn’t a new scenario for them.  
He turned to me, same old expression, same old commanding tone.  
“You will portal us to our other hideout and then you will explain to me why you disobeyed my orders.”  
Instead of worrying over Draxum’s possible punishments, I wondered if it was too late to try a human world taco or maybe even pizza. Those are supposed to be food for the soul. I wasn’t sure how I could feed material food to my soul but it sounded pretty nice right about now.  
“No,” I said and it felt good. I was reminded of the warmth of Usagi’s tea. This word had a similar, soothing effect. “No,” I repeated, one of my hands clenched my sword while the other touched the plaster that stuck awkwardly on my shell.  
I had enough of the hidden city, of Draxum, of all these conflicting voices in my head that simultaneously looked back- and forward. I just had enough of everything, I was tired.  
Without looking back, I disappeared in a blue flash.


	6. Drinks for Free Privileges

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I am very sorry for the break between the last chapter and this one. One essential reason that brought me back to this story are your very heartwarming and encouraging comments and all your kudos! You all really make my day. I hope that I can from now on update the story more frequently!

Welcome to the thrills and wonders of the Battle Nexus! One of the most popular forms of entertainment known to yokai kinds, at least, as long as you remain on the side of the ring that is relatively safe. Beyond a dozen mystical boundaries lies a dusty and relentless stage where legends are made and death might just be a quick cry for help away. Yokai who turn from spectator to spectacle often belong to particular types of creatures; they are either desperate for fame or wealth, extraordinarily stupid or otherwise tricked into it. Most yokai are not aware that, in fact, only a few enter the stage on their own free will.   
This was the card that I played out against Big Mama when I appeared at her doorstep and asked to participate in the Battle Nexus in exchange for some high-class lodgings. Sure enough, she provided me a room but it was more a storage room with a mattress on the ground. I swear something else lived in there, even though I never actually saw it, I am sure I heard it crawl around on the ceiling in the night.   
I could not complain or she would have noticed that I had been getting desperate. Never tell this to anyone, but after leaving Draxum I soon realised that I had no idea where I should be going. Most yokai I had known all my life were close associates of Draxum and I couldn’t bring myself to ask Usagi for help. I would rather eat my scarf then come crawling back to the rabbit after making such a cool exit.   
The human world, I soon realised, was a smelly, loud, and nonsensical mess of a place. I spare you my first New York food adventures or how I spend the nights wandering around until I nodded off in some side-street. All you need to know is that one night l I found myself looking up the concrete walls to see a bright neon sign nearby that read “Grand Hotel Nexus”. I remembered how Draxum always complained about Big Mama, whose influence was even more far reaching than the stone-head council would like to admit. If you needed a dirty job done right, you would ask Big Mama and her prices were not only high, they always came with the fineprint that nobody cared to read and would come back to haunt you, literally.   
Draxum would expect that even I would not be stupid enough to go to her for help, which is why I did exactly that.   
The spider lady didn’t trust me one bit, she knew I wasn’t honest with her, in turn I knew that she knew, and she knew that I knew that she knew. But I was also aware that she struggled to make sense of me: A former henchman and experiment form Draxum who suddenly decided that he would align himself with one of his greatest enemies?   
Yeah, I wouldn’t believe that either.  
Either way, we all went along quite well as long as we didn’t trust each other and I won my battles in the Nexus.  
The cheering of the crowd long echoed in my head when leaving that place. The excitement was running through me like an electric shock. In the back of my head a voice tried to remind me to not get too comfortable, these yokai would cheer at a rubber duck as long as it would not be incinerated in the first second.   
Some time passed, my hotel room got more comfortable (my weird invisible roommate stayed with me, though).   
Drinks for free privileges were graciously given.  
Life was good.   
Then, the rumours started. Yokai were sighted in the city, they came out of nowhere, acted outside the ancient code and even humans noticed their existence. Sometimes I heard Draxum’s name drop in a hushed conversation. It was widely known that he liked to create artificial yokai in his spare time or any time really, so some yokai were smart enough see the connection there. I imagine that he would not exactly be thrilled if he heard of the news that the results of his experiments running wild in the upper world.   
There were other rumours as well, of three kappas who tried to contain the damage done by the other new yokai. It was obvious that those were red, purple and orange. So they had managed to escape from the lab and were now tracking down Draxum’s experiments.   
One day after a night of successful battles, I was sitting in the lounge room, and wondered what exactly the colour-coded idiots were up to. Why are they making the other yokai into their problem? They couldn’t reverse the mutation, could they? Then again, as long as I stayed here I would never see them again. It was better to stay away from this whole mess in the first place.  
I guess these thoughts jinxed it all cause when I just mused about the rumours and absent-mindedly glanced at the elevator to observe who was coming up, it was none other than red, purple and orange. And not only that, they were with Big Mama herself.  
My drink suddenly burned in my throat and I tried to suppress a cough. I jumped behind the counter and ignored the protests of the octopus barkeeper.   
What were they doing here?  
Did they know I was hiding at the hotel?  
I glanced over the counter, Big Mama apparently gave them the grand tour, she gestured to the big screens broadcasting the Battle Nexus and the three yokai looked around impressed and a bit hesitant.   
It was obvious they took all of this in for the first time.  
It dawned to me what was happening here. Big Mama was spinning them into one of her traps and they didn’t even notice.  
“Sir,” said the barkeeper, “Sir, I must really ask you to move away from the counter.”   
I mean, why should I care?   
It doesn’t affect my deal with her and if she asks if I know them I could still play dumb.   
“Sir, you are blocking the ice machine, could you please move,” pressed the barkeeper again, though I was still not listening.  
The most sensible thing to do would be to ignore them.  
Out of sight, out of the mind, or something like that.  
It would be stupid to get involved.

I got involved.

Big Mama was showing the yokai to the elevator that went straight up to her personal office. That could only mean trouble. I mean, I could at least follow them to figure out what Big Mama was planning to do with them. Maybe I could use this against her, just in case.   
I waited until they had disappeared behind the shut doors of the elevator and went into the next one making sure I was alone with the page yokai.   
I let him move to different floors until I felt it was time to move to the upper floor and right before the employee with me lost all of his patience.   
I knocked the yokai page unconscious and dragged him into one corner so he and myself wouldn’t be visible from the outside.   
The mechanical bells chimed, the doors opened, and I could see glimpses of Big Mama’s half-lit office.  
“Ah, just in time,” a voice as overly sweet as one of those gummi bears coated in sugar said, “and remember our deal, turtly dearies.”  
“You can count on us, ma’am,” boomed another voice that was near to the elevator.  
Raph, Donnie, and Mikey all had their backs to me when they entered the elevator and waved in good spirit back at Big Mama. When I pressed the button to close the door, time slowed down for a second in which we recognised each other, and expressions of confusion wrestled with those of disbelief and anger. Raph jumped for the door but the elevator was already in motion and I blocked the panel. Donnie grabbed Mikey. He pulled the smallest one behind him and several metallic arms sprung from his shell. Mikey was the only who didn’t seem ready to beat the crap out of me even if all of us could barely move around.  
“Oh, come on,” I said and leaned back on the expensively decorated wall, “you are not happy to see me?”  
“YOUUUU,” screamed Donnie and pointed with all of his robot arms at me as if he could make me disappear through this mere act, “do you know through how much trouble we went after we escaped from this freak-show of a place?”  
“People got mutated all over New York City all because of your stupid ooze-quitos!” Raph added in a calmer voice than purple but his anger was still very much tangible.  
“Ooze-quitos?” I needed a second to make sense of the word. “Oh, you mean the experiments that escaped? Yeah, that didn’t go exaaactly according to plan. But it’s not my fault you decided to wreck the lab.”  
I pushed another button on the panel to make sure that it didn’t suddenly stop at the next floor.  
“Our fault?!” Raph took out the mystic tonfa and hold them up in a ready-to-strike pose, “you are the one who abducted us in the first place!”  
As an answer to their threatening stances I pulled out a small hidden sword from my belt. What, you thought the mystic blade is the only weapon I have? Actually, if you are my enemy it would be beneficial if you believed that.  
“I have no business fighting you here,” I said and the sharp knife added a silent ‘but if you insist I would be ready’.   
“What did Big Mama tell you? Did you make a deal with her?” I asked and their faces immediately gave me an answer.  
“No matter what she offers you in return, you shouldn’t do what she asks of you. Big Mama almost never upholds her end of a bargain.”  
“Yeah right,” Donnie said and rolled his eyes, “as if the evil twin is more trustworthy than the giant spider lady.”  
“Why do you keep calling me that,” I returned. I was starting to get a real headache. I forgot how much their presences irritated me.  
“Donnie is right, you kidnapped us, put us in prison and you clearly belong to that evil sheep-dude from the lab. Why should we trust you?” Raph added.   
Pure cold rage flowed over my back like ice-cold water. I hold the knife up, ready to swing and I could see in their eyes how they expected that I would target one of them. I swung the knife in a curve and rammed it deep into the elevator wall to my left side.   
“I don’t BELONG to him,” Each word was like a hiss that escaped through my gritted teeth.   
For a second only the silent rumblings of the elevator filled the room, then the jingle played, which seemed to echo much louder than usual, and the doors opened to the ground floor.  
For another second no one dared to move.   
“We...we have our mission and we need to fix the mess YOU helped creating. So if you have no intention of actually helping us, you should stay out of our way.”   
Raph’s tone was serious and steady and for the first time it dawned to me that he was definitely the oldest of the bunch.   
“Come on guys,” he said and everyone followed him out of the elevator. Before the doors closed again, I could see Mikey briefly gazing back at me. I let go of the knife, which was probably going to be stuck there for a while.  
The elevator began to move up and I dialed the floor where I currently lodged.  
I heard the page yokai moaning in pain behind me as he regained consciousness but my mind was still fixed on orange’s expression just now.   
I recognised it from the arena, some yokai would wear the same expression when their favorite candidate lost to me.   
He had looked betrayed and disappointed.


	7. Live-Saving Hair Products

Cheers and confetti, blood and sweat, drinks, and tears. All these things and more you could find in the Battle Nexus. At first, it’s intoxicating but after a while, it becomes just another familiar scenery.   
I was standing at one the podiums, resting after a fight whose outcome had been decided too close to my liking. While sipping on my usual drink, I leaned at the railing and looked down at the ring. Two bulkheads I didn’t know were trying to throw each other around. Not exactly the most exciting match. My mind drifted off to my encounter with purple, red, and orange some weeks ago. I didn’t hear many rumors about them since then.   
Maybe they listened to me after all?  
I felt strangely relieved at this thought, though I wasn’t sure why. After all their well-being was none of my business.   
The match ended in a draw. Well, I thought, stupid equals stupid, no surprise there.   
I slurped at my drink and threw some side glances at the other Nexus winners, some talked as if they knew each other for a while, some just stared at their weapons in silence, some looked as if they wanted to cut you open as soon as you give them an opening.   
Yikes, nobody seemed like they would appreciate some of the jokes I have been working on.   
“Wasn’t that some good old Battle Nexus action?” The voice of the commentator shouted from somewhere above, “And now a new intermission program, please welcome with me these three new…volunteers to the stage.”   
My stomach tightened. I got a bad feeling about this.   
The gate slowly moved upwards. Some yokai also moved to the railing and asked amused, “now what kind of clowns did Big Mama catch this time?”   
And there they were. Raph, Donnie, and Mikey were pushed by two guards into the Battle Nexus. They looked confused and overwhelmed by this whole situation. The crowd roared and threw random objects into the ring. The yokai besides me whistled, “Wow, look at their faces, they’ve no idea what is going on! At least the big one seems like he can take a punch but the rest…”   
The gates on the other side opened and a chimera sprang out of the shadows into the arena. The commentator announced: “We forgot to feed Freddy for a few days! Sorry, our mistake! But now he should be really glad for some snacks?”   
The crowd chanted: “Snack time! Snack time!”   
Raph shoved Donnie and Mikey behind his giant shell. None of them had their weapons with them, I realized. It was clear Big Mama wanted to make sure these three didn’t survive today.   
The chimera slinked towards, down on all four with his teeth shining in the mystical lights.   
I clenched my drink so hard that its glass began to crack.   
Idiots, I thought, morons. They didn’t listen to me at all! Instead, they had gone off to do exactly what Big Mama told them to do.   
Of course, they would never trust your words, why should they? said a voice inside me. Why did I even try?  
As Raph readied himself to face the chimera, the others slowly took their stance beside him. They were determined to go down together or not at all. It finally dawned to me that they really were a family, these three had grown up together, had cried and laughed together, had accepted that human girl as one of them. Their bond was so strong. It made me sick to my stomach. I felt similar to when I had decided to talk to Draxum about myself and their origin.  
More yokai came to the railing, they pointed and laughed at the three, while the chimera started its first attack. Raph managed to block him. The lion head snatched at Mikey and he could only avoid getting his own head snapped off by completely retrieving into his shell.   
“Oh man, that is too good,” laughed one Nexus fighter, “they try to hide in their own shells! Crack them open Freddy!”   
“Crack them open,” echoed the stadium as Donnie tried to move around the chimera but was greeted by his snail tail that was just as deadly.   
I had been standing in the arena dozens of times and even if some fights had been tougher than others, I had always felt I was in control of the situation. I had never lost my temper and kept the crowd on my side. This was the first time I felt angry at the Nexus and disgusted by anyone involved in it.   
The glass in my hand shattered but I formed a fist with such strength that I pressed the small splinters deep into my skin. Two yokai had noticed my reaction and turned their attention to me.   
“Hey, you kinda look like these clowns. Are you related?” said one of them.  
“Must be glad to get rid of them, huh?” chided the other.   
I released my fist and grabbed with the same hand, the head of one of the yokai. The shards that were stuck in my hand now also bore deep into the yokai’s face. The other yelped and more Nexus champions looked at us.   
I was not only angry. I was mad with every fiber of my body.   
“Say that again,” I said in a calm voice that was dripping with rage, “and I will leave your face in shreds.”   
From behind my fingers, I could see the yokai’s eyes growing large with fear. That satisfied me enough to draw my hand back, which must have been pretty painful for both of us and I looked down again.  
Somehow Donnie still had full-on DJ equipment that he used to hypnotize the snake. As random as this looked, it actually seemed to work on the snake. On the other side, Raph still wrestled with the lion part and Mikey was sitting on one of Raph’s shoulders and tried to poke the lion’s eyes. They were crazy enough to not lose the fight, yet. The cheers turned more diverse. Some had begun to support the three, while others still wanted to see them turn into a three-course meal.   
“Looks like the Freddy doesn’t have fast food today, how about we give his sister Stacy also a chance to grab a bite?”   
The crowd agreed with louder cheers and the next gate opened, letting another chimera in. Stacy looked very similar to her brother, except for her fur, which shimmered in different metallic colors as she gracefully tiptoed towards the others.   
“Now isn’t that a magnificent intermission, turtly-boy?” said a voice from behind, and the whole crowd at the podium turned around to see Big Mama approaching us just as deadly and elegant as the female chimera. It was very unusual for her to come down from her personal lounge. Something was up and in order to face her I needed a cool head. I tried to breath in and out slowly and to hide my bloody left hand.   
“You think so, Big Mama?” I said and leaned with my back against the railing, “I don’t consider it a fight if they don’t even have weapons to defend themselves. It’s pathetic to watch.”   
Big Mama snickered and as she moved to the railing next to me, everyone else kept their distance.   
“Soon you will be an only child, bluey,” she said, “yet again, you didn’t know your seepy siblings for very long?”  
I had expected that she knew more than she had led on, but this was a lot to take in. She knew EVERYTHING. I swallowed and had to focus on the pulsating pain in my hand in order to keep my voice casual.   
“Only because they are also turtle yokai you assume we are siblings? Isn’t that kinda racist? I don’t assume you are related to every spider in the upper and lower city?”   
She was still watching the fight, but her eyes turned a bit sharper.   
“You would be surprised,” she mused in a sing-sang kind of tone. “Certainly, we weren’t created in a lab, weren’t we?”   
I shivered but managed to shrug. “Wouldn’t make a difference, as long as one wins.”  
From a tray nearby I took another drink, it was just an automatic gesture purely for the sake of covering up my growing anxiety.  
“Yes,” Big Mama said and lingered on the word, “the Battle Nexus favors those who win no tedly matter who the champions are. But look at them,” and I turned around again to the arena.   
Raph was clearly worn out from exchanging punches with both chimeras. He evaded their attacks impressively for his size. Mikey had sneaked around to find some blind spots but that was almost impossible. Donnie had run out of power for his spontaneous DJ performance and had reverted back to the running-and-screaming-tactic.   
“Wouldn’t you say they are clearly corrupted?” Big Mama asked, “they had lived on the surface for too long. They weren’t brought up like other yokai. You are the best example of that. You were trained by yokai so you stand on this podium while they” she pointed at them again dismissively, “are down there. It’s the neatly natural order of things.” She giggled like a small child.   
There were many things I wanted to say. How growing up under Draxum sucked, how much I envied the others, how wrong her twisted perspective was. But in the end, smart words and clever rhetoric failed me.   
“Screw you,” I said and emptied my whole drink on top of her head. For a moment even Big Mama looked surprised, while juice dripped down her hair and glasses. Then her face told me I just had written my own death sentence.   
“Seize him,” she screamed.   
I threw the glass at the first bodyguard, then grabbed my sword, and jumped from the podium. I landed in a crowd of spectators under the podium, I jumped again and landed in another row. I shouted, “champion coming through!” and “everything is alright, we rehearsed this”. Then, finally, the arena floor was near enough for one last jump.   
By then the whole Battle Nexus was in chaos. Big Mama’s voice shrilled from above. Fans were unsure how to react to fights that were happening in their own ranks instead of the arena. Even the chimeras turned their attention to me as soon as I landed.   
“More food!” they cheered in unison. “Oh, great,” I said and cursed myself for not thinking this through, like, at all.   
Behind them, Donnie pointed at me and screamed, “YOUUUU!”   
“Seriously, can you stop doing that each time you see me,” I screamed back.   
“This one has a sword, let’s finish him first,” Freddy’s snakehead suggested.   
I lifted my sword, but it felt unusually heavy since I couldn’t grab it with two hands.   
“Great, are you here to kill us off, too?” Raph shouted and his voice made clear that he was still bitter from Big Mama’s betrayal. Stupid, I thought and rolled my eyes.  
“Hey don’t roll your eyes at me,” Freddy’s lion head said.  
“He was clearly rolling his eyes at me, stupid,” said Stacy.   
Classic sibling rivalry.   
That gave me an idea.   
“I must say, up close Stacy’s fur is really way prettier,” I said judgmentally.   
Stacy, who just looked ready to attack me, stopped in her movement.   
“What did you just say?” she asked.   
“Well, some yokai up there had this poll going on about who had the most beautiful fur. I said, Freddy clearly had the better hairstylist, but many of the others were convinced that you used more hair products to get the shine of your fur just right.”  
Both now looked at me very eagerly.   
“So,” said Stacy.   
“Who won?” said Freddy.   
I scratched my chin and waited to answer just a few more seconds, enjoying the moment way too much.   
“Well, you see,” I said acting all torn and indecisive, “it was a tie and I was the only one who didn’t cast my vote and at first I wanted to give it to Freddy but now up close I think I would rather go with Stacy.”   
Stacy proudly shook her mane. “I expected this result,” she said.   
“Did not,” said Freddy and tackled his sister. He bumped into her, but not with a lot of force.   
Stacy growled at him.   
“Get away from me with your nasty hair, you really need to wash it more,” she said.   
“Excuse me,” he said and sounded deeply offended.   
“Maybe I would shower more if SOMEBODY would not steal my shampoo all the time?”  
That was my cue to slowly back away while the chimeras began fighting over their hair products. I sneaked towards the others who hadn’t decided if they were still in danger or not.   
“Quick,” I said to them in a low voice when I got close enough. “This way,” I pointed to one of the gates that was half-open.   
“Wait,” Raph said, “I got an idea.”   
I wanted to tell him that we didn’t have time for any of his nonsense, but before I was able to open my mouth Raph had raised his right fist and punched the ground as hard as he could. The earthy floor shook, and dust blew up, covering almost half of the arena.   
That had actually been no-nonsense, I thought.   
I gestured to the others to follow me and while there was a cascade of screams beyond the dust we quickly ran to the gate that was only made of loose metal wires. When I started battling, I checked out how the machinery behind this place worked. You never know when you’re going to lose a fight and need to make a quick escape. It was then, that I had noticed that if the gates weren’t completely closed you could easily lift them up. Especially this one wasn’t massive as some of the others and you could even see through to the other side.   
I pulled on one of the chains and said, “quick, we can escape through here.”   
Donnie hesitated a moment, then figured that listening to me would be at least better than staying with two hungry and cranky chimeras.   
I was still figuring out my next steps when Raph grabbed the gate from the other side and pulled it up.  
“Hurry,” he said. The first thought that rushed through my head was: What if he is letting go of the gate right when I crawl through it? I couldn’t simply trust him, could I?   
Didn’t they trust you just now?   
I looked up and fixated Raph’s eyes and I felt overwhelmed by the honesty with which they glowed. There seemed not even an ounce of doubt.   
It should have reassured me but instead, I took a step backward.   
I knew that when I would crawl through the gate and go with them, my life would change.   
Weren’t they just strangers I met a few times?   
Was there really a connection between us?   
Sometimes looking at them was like looking at a mirror and in the next moment, they seemed completely alien.   
I glanced at Donnie, who seemed conflicted (though most of the time his expression seemed kind of skeptical so I’m not sure if it was any different than his usual face). I looked at Mikey, who was afraid, but it was also clear that he was expecting me to go with them. Without being aware of my next action, my right hand touched the plaster he had given me, and he noticed the movement as well.   
What was the difference between you and me?   
With one swift movement, I cut the chains with my swords and the gate crashed down.   
Raph yelped but managed to pull his hands back in time.  
“What were you thinking?” he shouted from the other side of the gate, “You could have squashed my fingers!”   
“Please do me a favor and don’t get caught this time,” I said dismissively.  
“What about you?” Mikey asked and I wondered if this was a genuine worry I heard in his voice.  
“Portal-sword, remember?” I said and swung the blade around.  
I heard the chimeras roaring behind me, the dust had almost settled by now and everyone was looking for us.   
Raph wanted to say something, but he didn’t find the right words.   
“You can thank me later,” I said, “and it will be pricey, hope you guys have a lot of cash on you.”  
I smirked.   
“Nobody said anything about the payment,” Donnie protested.   
“Are you kidding me, you only did that for money?” Raph chimed in. Now the gate appeared to protect me instead of them.  
Mikey grabbed both their shoulders.   
“Don, Raph, we need to go,” he pulled them away from the gate.   
“See you later,” he said cheerfully, and I knew he truly meant that.   
I turned around as well. Glad that at least Mikey didn’t catch my lie.   
The Battle Nexus was surrounded by powerful mystic barriers. I could use my sword within the Nexus, but I couldn’t create a portal to the outside.   
I was trapped.  
I walked into the arena where beyond the dust I could only see silhouettes and hear screams and curses that were trying to outmatch each other. I had never been this excited to see what awaited me in the Battle Nexus.


	8. Dropping Or To Be Dropped

Back in the arena, I was greeted by the two chimeras. Apparently, they had settled their argument on who had the better hair stylist and instead had agreed on a collaborative turtle-snack. But they weren’t a serious challenge, so were the dozens of guards sprinting at me at once and let us not forget Big Mama herself, who got thrown out of her own Battle Nexus ring. Within mere minutes I walked freely out of the arena.  
As if.  
Of course, that didn’t happen, what did you expect?  
But the truth is quite embarrassing so let me just have this okay?  
To be fair, I did hold my ground against Freddy and Stacy. I created several portals and managed to pop in and out so quickly that they couldn’t keep track of me. At one point, Stacy’s snakehead got inpatient and she tried to bite my head off with quick consecutive attacks. Right before her teeth would reach me, I stepped out of the way to reveal one of the dozens of small portals I had created, and this one, in particular, led to Freddy’s lion head. Both of Stacy’s faces looked rather surprised as she heartily bit into Freddy’s upper left side.  
Freddy howled.  
“Watch it,” he scolded her.  
“Mmmpp,” answered Stacy’s snakehead.  
“Did nobody teach you that you shouldn’t speak with your mouth full?” I asked, though in the chaos that had erupted int arena my joke wasn’t much appreciated. Bulky yokai appeared on all sides of the arena. Some of them ran into each other via the portals that I had set up for the chimeras. For a moment, I felt in control of the impossible situation, yet I was too busy defending my bare skin to think about a proper escape plan. If I was stuck, then so was everyone else. The regret of my refusal to go with the others stung in the back of my mind like mosquito bites.  
I felt like I needed some extra eyes in my back and on both sides, heck I would have needed dozens of eyes to keep track of everything that was going on at the same time. So, you can’t really blame me that I couldn’t see the attack before it was too late. I shot a fellow champion who thought it clever to try and get a hit on me into the audience when from behind I heard a spider barfing.  
Large balls of sticky webs hit my shell with such force that I was flying towards a nearby wall along with the spider webs where I kept sticking like a squashed fly. (Nasty stuff, right?)  
I tried to press myself against webs, but they were insanely strong, and the more I struggled the tighter the goo stuck to my body. “You put up quite the unexpected show for us, bluey-boy” said the sugar-coated voice that belonged to the gigantic spider-lady.  
“Knew you would like it. I think you need to pay me double for tonight’s performance,” I returned mockingly.  
When Big Mama was in her real form, it was difficult to tell if she was angry or amused or maybe both.  
“Never done with the quick witty-wit, I see,” she said and changed into her human disguise. Her hair was still damp and stuck awkwardly to her face. That made me grin.  
“You still think you have any reason to smile?” She asked and moved closer to me. Her eyes shimmered like perfect stainless steel and seemed just as cold.  
“I will erase that trinkly-inckle smile of yours permanently.” 

And that was it. She taped my mouth with some more of her webs and then I was carried away and thrown into a pitch-black room where all I could do was thrashing around the floor like a worm. (Some advice: Don’t try to bite your way through extra-thick spider goo, the taste alone makes you want to barf.)  
When I got too exhausted to wiggle around, my mind started running instead.  
The elevator had moved pretty high up, which meant I must be in one of Big Mama’s private offices. I guessed she was still interested in using me for one of her schemes.  
What about the others?  
An annoying part of my mind asked.  
Long gone by now, another part answered and wasn’t sure how to feel about that.  
Then I heard the familiar jingle of an elevator door opening and light flooded the room though I couldn’t see its source.  
“You sure we are on the right floor?” asked a voice that I easily recognized as Raph’s steady yet slightly unsure tone.  
“Tenth time is a charm,” chirped Mikey.  
“This is the only floor left where Big Mama could possibly keep the ooze-quitos…Hey, I think that’s a giant safe door,” said Donnie in his usual skeptical voice.  
I lay in the room’s shadows, trying to scream but through the webs, it sounded like the hum of an insect.  
“Jackpot,” Donnie said and a deafening noise filled the room. What is that idiot doing? It sounded as if he was trying to saw his way through a thick metal wall?  
Suddenly light flushed the room and I could see from an awkward angle how Big Mama entered through another, secret door. She walked like someone who was sure they had everything under control and the whole world was at their fingertips. She briefly glanced at me, then to where I assumed the other three yokai. At least the terrible sound of Donnie’s metal saw had stopped.  
“Trying to steal from Big Mama my turtly-boo?” she said sweetly and then sourly, “nobody steals from Big Mama.”  
I moved inside the webs as much as I could until I finally managed to roll around and saw Raph, Donnie, and Mikey standing in front of the biggest safe door I had ever seen.  
“You,” said Donnie and for the first time, it didn’t sound like a curse and rather like a tired sigh. The other two looked back and forth between me and Big Mama. Afraid. Confused. Seeing their wild expressions made me feel ashamed. After running my loudmouth and acting all strong and independent, here I was, a helpless bundle of turtle neatly wrapped in spider goo and at the mercy of Spidey Grangran.  
Their best option of survival is to back off quickly to the door, but they made no attempts to do so. Whatever they wanted to retrieve from the safe seemed worth any risk.  
“Tough luck, Big Mama,” Raph returned, scraping up all the courage he could muster.  
“We won’t go until we get back the ooze-quitos! You should have guarded our weapons better, now it’s time for some serious payback!”  
Mikey began swinging his kusari-fundo and it erupted in flames. I could tell he had the weapon much more under control than the last time I had seen him. Donnie’s worryingly gigantic chainsaw turned into a hammer of equally worrying size.  
The air felt charged with animosity and determination, but none of them dared to make the first move.  
My eyes caught Mikey, the only one who wasn’t focused on Big Mama even though he tried to observe both of us at the same time. With his weapon he could easily cut me free and my right hand still tightly clutched my sword, which had been doomed to get tied into the webs along with me. I tried to nod at my right side in the hopes Mikey would also see the tip of the sword.  
Cut me free, I thought, as if I could communicate with him telepathically, cut me free and we can all get the heck out of here.  
I tried to convince myself that Mikey’s eyes agreed with me. Then he shouted “Cowa-“ and charged Big Mama.  
“-bunga!” answered his brothers and jumped over me right at the boss lady, who turned into her original form and greeted them with demonic screams and giant, hairy claws.  
The fight escalated throughout the whole room, though from my unfortunate position, I couldn’t see much of it and had to rely on screaming and grunting sounds, some curses, Raph’s battle cries, and weapons hitting the floor and walls, in order to figure out what was happening.  
Big Mama’s hench-yokai would be here soon, she had a short temper and even if this fight entertained her for some moments, I guessed she would order a whole army of strong yokai to storm the floor as soon as she was done playing. While I was calculating my chances of escape, I heard a ripping noise and felt the spider goo loosening up at the back of my shell. Someone was cutting through the webs. In a matter of seconds, I was able to move my hands, and shortly after I could even rip off the nasty stuff around my face. I would need a whole tube of toothpaste to get the taste out of my mouth.  
“Finally, orange, I thought you didn’t see me lying there,” I said and turned around. It wasn’t Mikey who knelt beside me.  
“Purple?” I said in serious disbelief as Donnie changed his bo-staff from a sharp knife back into its original state.  
“At least learn our names, jeez, you sound like dad,” he said and got up.  
I wanted to ask him why he would help me, out of the three, he seemed the one who hated my face the most.  
“Heads up, I mean, heads down!” Mikey shouted and we just had enough time to duck as Big Mama flew over us. Tied in the chains of kusari-fundo she swung in a huge arc across the room and slammed ironically into her own safe door. The metallic walls didn’t budge one bit.  
“The password of the safe is one,” I told Donnie, who rose one his definitely inauthentic eyebrows.  
“What do you mean ‘one’? Just one number?”  
“No, it’s all the number one, the whole combination,” I said and disentangled my feet from the remaining webs.  
“So one one with several zeros or several ones and no zeros?” Donnie asked and I wondered if strangling him was still on the table.  
“Are you doing this on purpose?”  
He rolled his eyes at me as an answer and ran for the safe. I was glad he didn’t ask how I knew the combination. I preferred to keep some of my secrets always to myself.  
I tried to figure out our current situation. Raph and Mikey looked pretty beaten up at this point. Big Mama, on the other hand, was already recovering from the crash.  
“You will regret this,” she hissed, and I was sure she was about to call her buffest underlings, maybe even Guss. Instead, the windows exploded inwards and big, violet vines stretched into the room like tentacles of a Kraken. I could recognize those plant-works anywhere. Draxum appeared in the hole his vines had created, arms crossed, brows wrinkled.  
“Big Mama,” he growled, “I heard you have something that belongs to me.”  
The giant spider pointed with three claws at me.  
“Gladly, take this one back, he caused nothing but trouble,” she said and I even though she was my mortal enemy and all, I felt slightly offended.  
Draxum threw a condescending look at me. My mouth went dry. I had frequently thought about what would happen if I ever saw him again. I had imagined I would crack some jokes while showing off my impressive skills and maybe a small group of hench-yokai of my own. Instead, I was standing there with a bleeding hand and spider webs still sticking on my shell and got pointed at as if I was a stray cat that nobody wanted to take care of.  
“Hey Leo,” Huginn said from one of Draxum’s shoulders and waved. “We saw you in one of the Battle Nexus broadcasts.”  
“I especially liked the part where you splashed Big Mama, that was hilarious!” agreed Muninn.  
Big Mama howled and sprang towards Draxum who defended himself (and his gargoyles) with his vines.  
“Are you done playing?” Draxum said and I knew those words were addressed towards me.  
“Who said I was playing? You’re talking to a Battle Nexus champion,” I returned and hated how petty I sounded.  
“Don’t make yourself even more of a joke than you already are,” he returned.  
Even more, vines erupted from the ground and formed a protective wall around the alchemist.  
No smart reply came to my mind or any of those great lines I had prepared that would have shown him how much I didn’t need him. They were all gone.  
I turned away and saw the turtle yokai exiting the safe. Raph carried a big jar that emanated a green light and by closer inspection, I finally realized what the glass bowl contained. A lot of pieces of the larger puzzle suddenly fit together perfectly.  
They had been hunting Draxum’s lost experiment, the insects full of mystical ooze, which was also the origin of the new mutants appearing all over New York. Big Mama must have tricked them into handing them over to her and so their noble intentions had backfired. They were making their way towards the elevator and I readied my sword to create a portal. Before I could even move the blade, one of the smaller vines slung around my left feet and lifted me upside-down into the air.  
“Hey,” I protested, “let me go, Sheep-freak.”  
“You’ll come back with me,” Draxum insisted, but he needed to split his attention between me and Big Mama, who crawled vertically on the walls around him looking for a blind spot.  
“Boss, I think the other turtles escape with the ooze-quitos!” Huginn shouted and both yokai stopped fighting at once to shift their attention towards Raph, Donnie and Mikey, who were all hectically pressing the button at the elevator.  
A web flew across the room and hit Mikey’s left hand, which got taped to the wall.  
Donnie flung around and shouted, “Fine, it’s time for some payback!”  
His bo-staff shifted into turbo hammer mode and he jumped at Big Mama while Raph tried to get Mikey free. Vines snatched up the big snapper turtle into the air and the jar full of trouble tumbled to the ground. I saw my chances and ran for it. Mikey freed himself and did his best to help his brother.  
“You’ll regret that gave me the first positive reinforcement of a parent or adult figure ever!” Donnie declared and pulled some impressive technical secrets out of a small suitcase that he had probably also taken from the safe.  
Raph meanwhile got thrown around by Draxum’s vines. Mikey ran towards me when his repeated attacks had no effects on the plants.  
“Come on,” he said encouragingly, “together we can take him down.”  
I looked at the small turtle in surprise.  
“Why should I? As far as I’m concerned, I’m out of here,” I said before my brain could completely catch up with my mouth.  
Mikey’s eyes shifted from sparkling hope to dim disappointment and it was as if my mouth was again shut tight with spider goo.  
Don’t look at me that way, I thought.  
The more rational part of myself was telling me: What are you waiting for? Just go!  
But I didn’t go anywhere.  
Draxum knew that as well and he commanded: “Give me back my experiments!”  
I cut through some of his vines and evaded the next assault. Mikey had decided to first help Donnie and left Raph to me.  
“I didn’t agree to any of this,” I cursed through my teeth. Before I sprinted towards them, divide under some vines and webs and grabbed the jar that was just then tumbling around the room. Awkwardly holding on to the cold glass, I cut Raph loose with one swift swing, which left me wide open for Draxum to wrap around his plants around my waist and to hurl me towards the room’s window side. With one hand holding on to my blade and the other clutching the jar I uncontrollably rolled into and out of the hole in the wall. When I realized what was happening and the world stopped spinning, I was already through the window and out in the cold city night. I saw the dazzling city streets under me, the cars were the size of insects and humans appeared from this height as a mass of colorful dots. My stomach made a summersault right in the instance when gravity started pulling me downwards.  
My brain had difficulties understanding the situation.  
Fall.  
Big fall.  
Sword?  
Portal!  
That was all it could manage.  
I drew my breath in sharply and the streets stopped getting nearer.  
My scarf had almost strangled me, and I looked up to see that the piece of cloth had been caught in one of the sharp edges of the broken glass above.  
I inhaled and exhaled, inhaled and exhaled. Paralysed. The already wounded hand hold on to the sword AND the scarf with such intensity, new blood tripled through my palm and down the Nexus Hotel building.  
How could I pull myself up when I still hold on to that stupid jar?  
I heard the ominous sound of wool ripping, inch by inch. The scar wasn’t going to hold me much longer.  
I could make out a figure appearing in the window hole that was looking down at me.  
“Go away!” I screamed.  
“Do you want to die so badly? I could help with that,” Draxum said calmly.  
“That’s none of your business,” I returned and the scarf around my neck was getting tighter with each moment.  
“Hold on to my experiments. That’s an order,” Draxum snapped back.  
A vine wrapped itself around my hand and arm that held my scarf and slowly pulled me up.  
In the meantime, the word “orders”, echoed through my mind.  
Nothing but following orders for most of life. Wasn’t that a miserable way of living?  
Huginn and Muninn moved from his shoulder and circled around me.  
“Uuhh, Boss,” said Huginn.  
“He doesn’t have the jar,” said Muninn.  
Draxum looked down on me from the window.  
“What? Didn’t you have it just now? Tell me where it is, NOW,” he shouted.  
“The jar?” I said with an almost innocent tone, “oh, that old thing? I must have dropped it. Wasn’t very decorative after all.”  
That was the truth, I had let it go when I had dawned to me that I would just please Draxum if I would keep it.  
“That was just what I wanted, idiot,” he said dismissively, “good job, you can go now,” and the vines let go of me. My scarf would rip for sure now and I would need to create a portal in time before my face would painfully get to know the city road.  
Just as suddenly as the yokai had let go of me a giant, glowing arm reached out of the room right beside Draxum and grabbed me like I was an oversized can of soda in a cooler.  
My stomach didn’t enjoy to be continuously swung around that high above ground.  
“I’m gonna hurl guys, just let me go!” I shouted but the arm was already rushing upwards, and I found myself in Big Mama’s office again.  
Raph seemed even more taken aback by his abilities than me and he stared at the exoskeleton in disbelieve while it gradually disappeared.  
“I didn’t know I could do that,” he mumbled.  
“You and me both,” I offered, and this pulled him back to the present. The turtle yokai looked at me sceptically.  
“Where are the ooze-quitos?” he asked.  
“Dropped them,” I shrugged.  
“You did WHAT?” Raph looked out of the hole as if he could still see the jar make out the jar somewhere.  
“I thought you knew,” I said sheepishly.  
I investigated the chaos left in the office and noticed two things almost at once.  
First, Draxum was gone. He got what he wanted. I felt the need to throw up again, but for very different reasons than just a few moments ago.  
Second, Donnie and Mikey had somehow managed to trap Big Mama in her own spider webs. (I had to admit, I was quite impressed)  
“Got the ooze-quitos?” Donnie asked and ran towards us.  
Raph pointed at me judgingly.  
“He lost them,” he said and definitely considered throwing me out of the window himself.  
“Why am I not surprised?” his brother sighed.  
“That doesn’t matter now,” Mikey intervened and stepped between me and the others.  
“He helped us out in the Battle Nexus, didn’t he, I’m sure he also has a perfectly good exp-“  
“No, I just dropped them to provoke Draxum,” I interrupted Mikey.  
The smaller turtle yokai threw a glance at me that was saying ‘I’m trying to help you here!’  
“I would love to argue with you for longer, but this office will be soon stormed by Big Mama’s yokai, so let’s get finally out of here,” I said and left out the part where I seriously wondered if there was even a shadow behind a dumpster left where I could hide from two of the most powerful forces in the yokai world.  
“Wait,” Mikey said when I was about to swing my sword.  
“We finally found you again. You need to give us some answers this time. How about some pizza? I know a place,” he offered.  
“Michelangelo,” Donnie said in a sour tone. He placed a left hand on Mikey’s shoulder and leaned closer as if to whisper though it was more of a slightly repressed scream.  
“We have been over this. We don’t invite mortal enemies over for dinner.”  
I saw the elevator doors sliding open in the distance and decided to cast a portal right under all four of us.  
“Pizza sounds good, tell me the details later,” I said and gave none of them, including myself, time to reconsider. Raph had only time to say ‘Not again’ before he was pulled into the portal along with the others.  
The last thing I saw from the grand Nexus hotel was Big Mama screaming at her underlings and several of her pitch-black eyes glaring at me. It was as if they were piercing right through my shell and were leaving me with the promise that the day would come, I would regret ever stepping a foot into her hotel.  
As I was disappearing in the blue mystical light, all of my pent-up frustration helped me to answer her gaze. I hoped she got my silent message: “Come and get me if you dare.”


End file.
